EDUARDO KOBRA’S COLOURFUL LEGACY TO RIO

EDUARDO KOBRA’S COLOURFUL LEGACY TO RIO

Rio de Janeiro, the city blessed with beauty by nature, has now a new beautiful man-made sightseeing location that harmonically matches the city’s vibrant and outdoor lifestyle.

Eduardo Kobra, a talented Brazilian graffiti artist, performed an impressive 15 meters high and 170 long artwork mural for Rio 2016 Olympic Games; this is not only the biggest mural of his career but, so far, the biggest graffiti in the world according “Guinness world records”, the book of records.

Entitled as “Ethnicities”, this mural is undeniably a fascinating colourful street art masterpiece with a noble concept behind it. Paint five typical indigenous faces from five different continents in a massive wall it was the way that the artist found to not only materialize the spirit of the Olympic Games in terms of its size and the bravery of the venture, but also to signify the inclusive nature of the games. Kobra intentionally displayed human race in its diversity, intending to show how differences can bring us closer together and make us become one that we fundamentally are. This work is a sensitive interpretation of the meaning of the Olympic Games logo with its five interconnected arcs.

Definitely, “Ethnicities” is an Olympic Games and Eduardo Kobra’s legacy to Rio. Located on the Olympic Boulevard of Praça Mauá in Rio de Janeiro, the street art has become a touristic attraction and a must-see when in the city. It’s not hard to understand the fascination the mural provokes on people when you consider it’s not only a beautiful, bold, colourful and massive work but everything else related to this mural is enormous in some way. Kobra worked for months on it. It took him three months and more than ten sketches to get to a satisfactory result on paper. Then a month preparing the wall, filling holes and a month more painting it. To have the painting done, he worked for 12 hours a day on average, having only a half an hour break for meals in between and dealing with rain or intense heat. There were around 100 gallons of white paint, 1,500 liters of colour paint and at least 3,500 cans of spray paint used to complete this job.

If you are not planning to go to Rio soon you can also check some of Kobra’s work around the world. New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Amsterdam, Dubai, Tokio, Sao Paulo, Rome and the list goes on and on. These other murals might not be as huge as “Ethnicities” but his murals are usually painted on predominant buildings and they are almost impossible not to notice.

Photo-realist portraits bigger than life in bold colours, checkered pattern filled with different textures, lines and shades, colourful spectrum plus a nostalgic reverence bare his signature making easy to identify Eduardo Kobra’s artwork.

However, his talent is not limited to a single style. He has also utilized a darker colour palette in some of his works while maintaining that stunning air of beauty in throughout his art. Its unavoidable not to feel a sense of nostalgia while looking at his creations, taking you back to a time when those individuals existed. There are a series of these murals style in Sao Paulo and this series is called “Mural of Memories”.

Last, but not least, a 3D effect is another style that Kobra has been painting.

You might want to follow him on Instagram: @kobrastreetart.

Please, share your photos with us if you stumble across one of his work around the world.